Hatt (College nf Agticultute iCibcarg Cornell University Library S 492.V3S8 Varro on farming.M. Terenti Varronis Rer 3 1924 000 219 505 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000219505 BOHN'S CLASSICAL LIBRARY VARRO ON FARMING PLAN OF THE BIRD-HOUSE "' 1^ %^^^^ CASINUM «iuc ^ ^ VARRO ON FARMING M. TERENTI VARRONIS RERUM RUSTICARUM LIBRI TRES TRANSLATED, WITH INTRODUCTION, COMMENTARY, AND EXCURSUS BY LLOYD STORR-BEST M.A. Lond. LONDON G. b£ll and sons, ltd: 1912 ' PREFACE This translation of Varro's ' Rerum Rusticarum is based on the ' Editio Minor' of Keil, which is the best text that we at present possess, and the most accessible to students. The numerous passages where I have ventured to adopt or propose a reading differing from that given by the great scholar are indicated and fully discussed either in the Com- mentary or Excursus. In excuse for the many alterations of his text which I have proposed, I would point out that Keil himself professes only to have restored the text of the Archetype, which is avowedly corrupt, to have made certain indubitable corrections, and to have cleared the ground for further emendation. In rendering the Latin, I have aimed, above all things, at accuracy, and have tried to say in English what Varro actually said in Latin, not what I imagine he ought to have said, or might have said, had he written in English. Graceful paraphrase would have been quite out of place in the case of an author who has no graces of style, is valuable principally for his matter, and is very difficult to understand. To other translations I am not at all indebted. Those with which I am acquainted—the French of Nisard, the Italian of Pagani, and the English of Clarke (1800)—are not good, and were made by men evidently unaccustomed to Varro's peculiar and archaic diction. — vi PREFACE The Commentary proceeds from an independent examination of the original sources used by Varro, and of those authors who borrowed from him, though, as will be seen, I have made free use of both ancient and modern commentators. When I have borrowed I have—in all cases, I hope acknowledged the debt. The apparent superfluity of illustrative matter will be forgiven if it be remembered that the book is not only submitted to the criticism of the scholar, but directed to the general reader, and even the practical farmer. For the sake of those who possess "small Latin and less Greek," I have translated passages of general interest from Cato, Columella, the Geoponica, etc. In the Introduction and the first two Excursus I have treated at length of the mise en scene of the imaginary conversations in each of the three books, and of the date at which they are supposed by Varro to have taken place—matters which have been undeservedly neglected, and have important bearing on the text. In Excursus III certain con- jectural emendations are proposed and discussed. A plan is given of Varro 's famous aviary, described by him in the third book. In 1794 the Prince de Segur published one, together with a voluminous commentary on Varro, iii, 5, 9, but he introduced many violent and arbitrary alterations into the text, and his plan is demonstrably wrong in many important particulars. My thanks are due and are gratefully paid to the Lord Abbot of Monte Cassino for his hospitality and gracious permission to use the magnificent library of the Badia; to the Signore Padre Bene- detto del Greco for his kindness in showing me the PREFACE vn remains of Varro's villa and aviary at Cassino, and for his valuable explanations of many topographical difficulties; to the University Library of Aberdeen for allowing me the use of books which I could with difficulty or not at all procure elsewhere ; and, finally, to Messrs. G. Bell and Sons for everything for vhich a generous and public-spirited publisher may be thanked. CONTENTS BOOK I Agriculture CHAP. X CONTENTS XI CHAP. LIV. xiv BIBLIOGRAPHY BoissiER, Gaston. Etude sur Varron. 1861. BoissiER, Gaston. Cic^ron et ses amis. 1895. Spengel, L. Varro, de, Lingua Latina. 1826. Agahd. Antiquitatum R. D. Teubner, Leipzig, 1898. German. Die sogenannten sententiae Varronis. Paderborn, 1910. Godefroy. Auctores Latinae Linguae, containing Verrius Flaccus, Festus, Nonius, Fulgentius, Isidore of Seville, etc. Gdn^ve, 1595. (This book contains an excellent and generally accurate index verborum.) J. H. Onions. Nonius Marcellus. De Compendiora doctrina. 1895. Ernesti. Clavis Ciceroniana. 1776. SOURCES USED BY VARRO HeSIOD. "E^ywv icai fifupiov. Xenophon. Oeconomicus, etc. Aristotle. De animalibus, de generatione animalium. Op. omnia. Firmin Didot. 1854. Theophrastus. De hist, plant., De causis plant., Schneider. Leipzig, 1818. Cato. De Re Rustica in the Scrip. R. R. Schneider. WRITERS WHO BORROWED FROM VARRO Vergil. Columella, Palladius, Vegetius; Scriptores R. R. Schneider. Plinv. Historia Naturalis cum notis variorum, Pin- tiani, Dalechampii, Scaligeri, Salmasii, Gronovii. Rotterdam, 1669. BIBLIOGRAPHY XV Servius and Pseudo-Servius, Philargyrius, Probus. Comment, in Virgilium. Gotting-en, 1826. Macrobius, cum notis I. Pontani, lo. Meursii, Jac. Gronovii et lo. Car. Zeunii, 1774. Augustine. De Civ. Dei. Frankfort, 1661. Isidore, in Auctores L. L. Godefroy. Geoponica. Cambridge, 1904. Petrus Crescentius in Schneider's Scrip. R. R. Julius Obsequens. 1772. AuLUS Gellius. Cura et sumptibus Philippi de Giunta Florentini. Florence, 151 3. Plutarch. Opera quae extant omnia. Frankfort. 2 vols. 1599. (Has a good index rerum.) Censorinus DE die Natali. Lugd. Bat. 1743- Shipley. Sources of corruption in Latin MSS. (In "American Journal of Archaeology.") 1903- Prou. Manuel de Pal^ographie Latine. 1892. Lindsay. Contractions in Minuscule MSS. igo8. Thompson and Fumagalli. Paleografia G. e L. Milano. 1911. Kempf. Rom. castrensis sermonis reliq. v 1901. Lindsay. The Latin Language. Alexander ab Alexandro. Gen. Dierum. Lugd. Bat., 1673. Leo F, Der Saturn. Vers. Berlin, 1905. Lindsay. Syntax of Plautus. 1907- Historische Grammatik der L. Sprache. Leipzig, 1903. Grandgent. Intro, to Vulgar Latin. 1908. ; 41 PASSAGES IN WHICH VARRO PROBABLY FOLLOWED THEOPHRASTUS VARRO R. K. THEOPHRASTUS VARRO R. R. THBOPBRASTDS I. 7. 6 H. P- I. 9. 5 '. 40. 3 C. P. ., 6, 3 H. P- '. 3. 5 C. P. I, 6, 9 C. P- I. 13. 9 I, 40, 4 C. P. 3. S, 3 '. 7>7 H. P. I, 4, 2 I. 40. 6 C. P. I, 6, 10 H. P. I, 4, 4 J, 41, 2 C. P. I, 6, 6 1,8,6 C. P. 3, 14, 8 I, 41. 4 H. P. 6, 6, 6 I, 9, 2 C. P. 2, 4, 1 rC. P. I, 8, I 1.9.4 H. P. 8, 6, I cf. -^ C. P. 2, 13, 6 1, 9, C. P. 2, 4, 9 Ih. P. 7, s, 1, i6, 6 H. P. 4, 16, 6 i, 41, 4fendJ C. P. I, 8, 2 C. P. 2, 18, 4 I, 41, 6 (end) C. P. I, 20, 3 I. 23. 2 H. P. 8, 7, 2 1.44. 2 H. P. 8, 7, 6 C. P- 3. 21, 3 1.44. 3 C. P. I, 20, H. P. 8, 9, I H. P. 7, 10, I C. P. 3, 21, 2 i. 45. ^ H. P. 8, I, s . 23, 3 H. P. 8, 9, I I. 45. 3 C. P. 1, 12, I 1, 24, 2 C. P. s. II. 2 H. P. I, 7, I 1, 26, I P. H. 4, 16, 6 C. P. I, 12, 7 C. P. 2, 18, 4 C. P. 3. 3. I C. P. 3, 10, 4 I. 46. I H. P. I, 10, I, 31. 2 C. P- 3. 14. I, etc. C. P. ji, ig, 2 I. I H. P. 2, I 35. 2, '. 55. < C. P. I, 19, 4 H. P. 6, 6, 6 C. P. I, 20, 3 P. I, . 37. S H. 7, C. P. 5, 4. 2 2 H. P- 1, 38, 2, 7, 4 I. 55. 7 H. P. 4, 16, s H. P- I 7. S. C. P. s. IS. 6 i. H. P. I, 39. 3 2, I For Amurca C. P. I, 19, 2 i, 1 H. P- 40, 3. I. 4 C. P. 6, 8, cf. 3 C. P- I. S. 2 {^Fr. 20, 35 I, 40, 2 C. P- 3. 1. I 1. 59. 3 C. P. I, 12, 9 H. P. 2, 4, I C. P. S. 6, I P- I. 3. 4 2. 1. 27 H. P. 3. 3. 5 P. I. I S. 3. A 12 cf. H. P. 3, IS, 5 cf. P. 1, 10, 5 3. 16, 6 C. P. 6, 5, I P- 2, I, I I P- S. I. I INTRODUCTION It is most singular that out of the enormous mass of writings which Varro left behind him—in the preface to the Hebdomades he tells us that he was eighty-four years old and had then written four hundred and ninety books—this treatise on farming is the only one which remains to us in anything approaching completeness. Of the De Lingua Latina, which consisted of twenty-five books, we have now only six, and these terribly lacerated, while all his other works—poetry, satire, literary criticism, grammar, philology, science, history, education, philosophy, law, theology, geography, antiquarian research—have perished except for a few disjected fragments salvaged by Dionysius, Pliny, Gellius, Macrobius, and the Christian apolo- gists. There would be little cause for wonder had his work been poor in quality, but all antiquity is unanimous as to its incomparable value ; in many branches of science and literature he was during his life-time and for many hundreds of years after his death the supreme authority.